Catharsis
by vegemite
Summary: A fic based on old Star Wars comics, featuring Dani and Den Siva. Takes place one week after the last issue. Readable to those who aren't familiar with characters. Thanks to millpzonesyou for betaing.


**Title**: Catharsis  
**Setting**:Saijo, one week after the comic "All Together Now" from the marvel Star Wars comics  
**Characters**: Dani, Den Siva  
**Rating**: Strong PG-13  
**A/N**: Even though it's a fanfic based on the comics, I think I explain enough for it to still be readable with those not familiar with the series.

Dani sat, motionless. Still. Her eyes were directed at the destruction that was Saijo, just out the window of her room on the planet. Already the Alliance of Free Planets had sent droids in to clear the debris and rubble. Zeltron assistance was on its way. The Empire had fled once the battle against the Tofs had been won, and the Nagai did not seem to ge eager to get themselves too involved in the goings-on of this galaxy. Just enough to redeem themselves in the eyes of most, but no more.

_Cleaning up is the job that no one wants to do._

She certainly did not want to do the cleaning up that was necessary in her own mind. She shouldn't have to clean up. It wasn't her fault. It was his fault, his doing, all his, and only by cruel, cold fate did she have to clean up the mess he'd created.

Den Siva.

She still hated him. She hated him for her own sake, and for Kiro's. Dani had long since wept her tears of mourning for Kiro, her one love, but the pain was still tearing at her. She had loved him so deeply, so completely, and then he had been torn, wrenched, ripped away from her, leaving her naked and vulnerable to the cruel whims of the galaxy.

And Den was the one who had done it. He had also been the one to administer the torture she had gone through on Kinooine. Agonizing physical torture, but nothing like what she was experiencing living so close to the one who had done it, this...this _Nagai_. She wanted him dead, with every fiber of her being. More than that, she wanted to be the one to slice his throat and watch his blood stream down his biody as he gasped his last. She wanted to watch him cease to live.

But she couldn't, because what she had told Luke was right. Den was the only one that understood her. Without him, there would be nobody that could grasp the pain she was going through. And, in some perverse way he loved her, and loved her all the more because she wanted to watch his blood trickle down the knife to stain her hands as she murdered him.

There was a knock at her door. It was him, she knew it was. She said nothing, did not even flinch, but continued to stare out the window. He came in anyway.

"Dani," Den breathed, standing at the doorway.

"What do you want, Den?" Her voice was emotionless, and she did not even glance in his direction. There was a long pause. Then Den spoke, softly and slowly.

"You know what I want. I want you." He crossed the room to kneel by her. "You're intoxicating. The more I look at you, the more I think of you, the more I want you. I want you to love me, but this hate, this...despising you have towards me just multiplies my desire. I need you." He reached for her hand and gently kissed the back of it. Repulsed, she ripped it away and sprang out of her chair.

"You can't have me! I need Kiro! You stole him from me, and I'll never have him again. You can't have me! Only Kiro could ever have me!" she screamed. How dare he touch her! How dare he think he could woo her! How dare he think that he could ever have her!

"Dani, please don't," he pleaded, rising and moving slowly towards her.

"No! NO!" She was backing away as he advanced. She would not let him win. She would fight him, she would do anything so that he wouldn't win. She threw down a small side table in his path. He started to run at her. Screaming, frantic she struggled as hegrabbed her wrists and pulled her towards him roughly, kissing her. It felt awful. She wrenched away her lips and spat in his face. Angered, he held her to him tighter with one arm as he wiped his face clean. She pushed against him, clawed at his arms, legs flailing, until finally she managed to knee him in the stomach. Doubling over in pain he let go of her and she ran to her bedroom, the irony of the location she was fleeing to escaping her.

The drawer, she slammed open the drawer next to her bed and pulled out a small blaster, hitting the butt to charge it. He was in the doorway. She aimed and squeezed the trigger, eyes wide open. Den slumped to the floor against her wall, blood flowing from his forehead and covering the carpet. The blaster lowered in her shaky hands. She had killed Den. His blood was on her concience, and she reveled in that fact. But now, now....

There was no one. There was no Kiro to love. There was no Den to despise. There was no one else that could possibly understand the pain and anguish that she was going through. She could not hide this murder, and she would be put in jail. It would not end like that.

Dani raised the weapon to her temple. Tears flowing freely down her cheeks, she whispered softly to no one.

"I'm sorry."

She didn't even feel the blaster bolt.


End file.
